One state-of-the-art device for draining the pleural cavity in rendering medical aid to patients with thoracic injury (SU, Patent Application No. 1,521,492) is known to comprise a drainage tube introducible into the pleural cavity by a stylet or mandrin and having a plugged nozzle, a non-return valve for expelling the air from the pleural cavity into the outer atmosphere, and an elastic receptable for accumulating pleural blood.
However, the afore-discussed known device fails to provide tightness of the pleural cavity during its drainage, which is of special importance when the surrounding atmosphere is infected laden with toxic agents, since air is free to penetrate into the pleural cavity as soon as the stylet is removed from the drainage tube introduced into the pleural cavity and until the plug is fitted into drainage tube nozzle.
Another state-of-the-art device for draining the pleural cavity (SU, Patent Application No. 1,223,920) is known to comprise a drainage tube having a central canal and perforations at one of its ends, a non-return valve provided at the opposite tube end, a stylet fitted in the tube central canal, and a retainer of the device shaped as an eyed strip. The device functions as follows. A skin incision is made in, e.g., the sixth intercostal space along the midaxillary line. The drainage tube is introduced, with one of its ends, into the pleural cavity, using a stylet, as far as the strip thrusts against the thoracic wall, whereupon the stylet is withdrawn. Then the non-return valve is fixed at the opposite tube end through a threaded joint.
In the aforesaid device air-tightness of the pleural cavity is disturbed after the stylet is withdrawn from the tube completely and until the non-return valve is fitted at the tube end, with the result that the air from the ambient atmosphere and particles suspended therein are easy to penetrate into the pleural cavity. As a result, the device in question cannot be used in mass destruction foci containing infectious agents, toxic substances, radioactive substances, and the like.
It is an essential object of the present invention to provide air-tightness of the pleural cavity during its draining and a possibility of transportation of a victim, wherein his/her pleural cavity is maintained air-tight.
It is another object of the present invention to cut down the time required for carrying out the procedure of draining the pleural cavity.
It is one more object of the present invention to obviate the danger of infecting the pleural cavity when the proposed device is used in the foci, wherein the ambient atmosphere contains infectious agents, toxic substances, radioactive substances, and the like.